Quotable

“(Thomas) Jefferson wrote almost a chapter of the Bible in the Declaration of Independence.”

— Menachem Begin, former Israeli Prime Minister

The concept of “Circuit Judges” comes from 1 Samuel 7:16

The Founders appealed to the Supreme Judge of the World at the close of the Declaration of Independence. The reference is Scriptural:

“Far be it from Thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike? Far be it from Thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

— Genesis 18:25, NASV

“And he said to the judges, Consider what you are doing, for you do not judge for man but for the Lord who is with you when you render judg- ment. Now then let the fear of the Lord be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the Lord our God will have no part in unrighteousness, or partiality or the taking of a bribe.”

— 2 Chronicles 19:6-7

“If the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow…. These considerations should lead to an attentive solicitude…to be religiously careful in our choice of all public officers… and judge of the tree by its fruits.”

— Elias Boudinot, (President of Continental Congress), 1793

“History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deteroriation leading to ultimate national disaster.”

— Gen. Douglas McArthur, Moral Decay

Each of 13 original state constitutions contained the recital: “All power residing originally in the people and being derived from them, the officers of government, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are the peoples’ substitutes and are therefore at all times accountable to the people.”

“The judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution. The judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three branches and the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter.”

— Alexander Hamilton

Original Intent:

“It is quite foreign from the nature of the judiciary’s office to make them the judges of the policies of public measures.”

— Elbridge Gerry, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Vice President of the United States, Congressman

“It is necessary that the supreme judiciary should have the confidence of the people. This confidence will soon be lost if the judiciary is employed in the task of rejecting popular measures of the legislature.”

— Luther Martin, Founding Father, Maryland Attorney General

“Chief Justice John Marshall, the father of judicial review, affirmed the Exceptions Powers of Congress under Article III and wrote that for the Court to usurp jurisdiction ‘would be treason to the Constitution.’”

— Darrell White

“There is no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers.”

— Montesquieu

“There is no happiness, …no liberty, …no enjoyment of life, unless a man can say when he rises in the morning, I shall be subject to the decisions of no unjust judge today.”

— Daniel Webster, Orator, U.S. Senator

“Our founding fathers did not establish the United States as a democratic republic so that elected officials would decide trivia, while all great questions would be decided by the judiciary.”

“I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as in the beginning. And afterwards you will be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

— Isaiah 1:26

“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution and not what we have said about it.”

— Justice Felix Frankfurter

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

— Declaration of Independence

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

— Declaration of Independence

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States….”

— Declaration of Independence

“Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth.

— United States Constitution

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation [statutorily requiring an ending of “So help me, God!”], to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

— Article VI, United States Constitution; Judiciary Act of 1789

“It has pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the heartsof the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approveof and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation.”

— Articles of Confederation of the United States of America

“Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an idea, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.”

— Arnold Toynbee

“Whenever words are understood in a sense different from that which they had when introduced…mistakes may be injurious.”

— Noah Webster

“If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law: it invites every man to become a law unto himself: it invites anarchy.”

— Justice Louis Brandeis

If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our thought processes are mere accidents—the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the materialists’ and astronomers’ as well as for anyone else’s [thought processes]. But if their thoughts—i.e., of Materialism and Astronomy—are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident would be able to give correct account of all the other accidents.

— C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

“Let us play the man for our GOD, and for the cities of our GOD…Bya faithful discharge of our duty to our country, let us joyfullyleave her important concerns in the hands of HIM who raiseth up andputteth down empires and kingdoms of the world as HE pleases.”

— John Hancock, a speech on the 4th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, 1774

“Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood andtreasure, that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil andreligious, and transmit them to their posterity…Now if we shouldgive them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed?”

— William Prescott

‘If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.”

— Winston Churchill

“[W]e all came to these parts of America, with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

— New England Confederation of 1643

“Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mudand slush of opinion, and prejudice and tradition, and delusion, andappearance, that alluvion which covers the globe… till we come to the hardbottom of rocks in place, which we can call reality.”

— Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862)

“Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants.”

— Justice James Wilson (one of the first justices of the U.S. Supreme Court)

Nothing can deceive unless it bears a plausible resemblance to reality.

— C.S. Lewis, An Experiment In Criticism

“A Constitution is not meant to facilitate change. It is meant to impede change, to make it difficult to change.”

— Justice Antonin Scalia, Interview on CBS “60 Minutes”

“In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

— Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438

“The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.”

— Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954)

“A judge is the blessing, or he is the curse of society. His powers are important: his character and conduct can never be objects of indifference.”

— Justice James Wilson, Works of the Honourable James Wilson, L.L.D.

“[A] man of enlightened understanding, appointed guardian of the laws, is the greatest blessing that a sovereign can bestow on a nation. Such a man is accustomed to behold truth, and not to fear it: unacquainted with the greatest part of those imaginary and insatiable necessities, which so often put virtue to the proof, and accustomed to contemplate mankind from the most elevated point of view, he considers the nation as his family, and his fellow citizens as brothers.”

— Justice James Wilson, Works of the Honourable James Wilson, L.L.D., 1804, Chapter 5

“The life of a society is its creeds; a dying creed faces desertion or subversion readily. Every creed, however healthy, is also under continual attack; the culture which neglects to defend and further its creedal base is exposing its heart to the enemy’s knife. Because of its indifference to its creedal basis in Biblical Christianity, western civilization is today facing death and is in a life and death struggle with humanism.”

— R.J. Rushdoony, The Foundations of Social Order

“Books on the making of our nation have been written, and are the texts in our colleges, in which the Christian religion, as a social and civil factor, has only scant or apologetic mention. This is either a fatal oversight or a deliberate purpose, and both alike to be deplored and condemned. A nation ashamed of its ancestry will be despised by its posterity.”

— Bishop Charles Galloway, Christianity and the American the American Commonwealth, 1898

“I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.”